Hey. For how Brawl Vault has been so far, it's been pretty lackluster for a while due to no changes. Navigation can be annoying sometimes when you're trying to look for some stuff, like some Pit costumes instead of all that DBZ stuff. Uploading can be annoying too at times when it comes to previews. I brought my ideas up to Scout/Nezha via Discord, but then he told me to post it here. Here are what I think would help benefit the Vault:

Vault Suggestions:

-Adding a review system. Sometimes we may not know the quality of the mod or would like to hear other people’s opinions on it. Comments solely based on feedback should also be added. There would be rules obviously, mostly that the rules here would apply there and that the comments should only relate to the mod itself. This would definitely help people see if the stage/model import/moveset has any problems or is lacking in quality.

-Give us the ability to remove our very own reports. Some people just make mistakes.

-Give Mewtwo and Roy their own slots in the character section. P:M is the very reason that more than half of the Brawl community mods nowadays. This would really help.

-Also give the P:M stages their own slots in the stage section as well.

-Add tags and a filter system. When you enter the Pit section, you see so many DBZ mods and theres no way to filter all that out, and you just want your Pit costumes without having to surf in all that. Maybe you just wanna only see the mods from a certain year. Tags would help with the filter system, plus it would help with what you're looking for as well. Maybe I just want to look for Mario recolors instead of models or all those PSAs only.

-Forbid screenshots taken by a camera. I don't like potato quality. You don't like potato quality. So get rid of it. Sometimes you can't see everything thanks to these people thinking its fine to upload previews just like that.

-Get rid of the function for when you add in a image into the direct image link on a entry then it auto fills the thumbnail. It’s very annoying, if anything.

-Speaking of uploading, add a preview cropper. I like my banners in high definition and hate having to constantly crop them by making them extremely low res to the point where it looks ugly. I'm sure other people feel the same way.

-If permission is asked for on a mod, then the user who wants to edit it NEEDS to get permission.-Fix the SFX/video previews, PLEASE. There's some sfx mods i've been itching to try out, but I need to know how they sound like and there's absolutely no way to view them, and other people complain about this as much as I do.

Even though I don't care much about the forums since it's dead, I'd like to suggest that we have the ability to make sure that they're not in the recycle bin.. i wanna get rid of every post i made from 2014-2017 forever and im sure some people would like to as well lol

To bounce off what Windhunter brought up, I&#039;d like to propose adding the following to Resources:

BrawlCrate. A branch of BrawlBox v0.78 (made by soopercool101) which fixes numerous bugs while adding various new features. It updates rather frequently depending on what sooper&#039;s working on. BrawlCrate also features a "Canary" system which lets users test new features before the next stable release is pushed.The current stable version is v0.24 (Hotfix 1): https://github.com/soopercool101/BrawlCrate/releases/tag/BrawlCrate_v0.24Hotfix1

PSA Compressor. A branch of Project Smash Attacks (made by ICLPX) which fixes numerous bugs while adding various new features. Unlike BrawlCrate, PSA Compressor doesn&#039;t update very frequently.The current version is v0.35: https://ux.getuploader.com/iclpxnohokanko1/download/110

All of what KJP mentioned? Do it. Resources has NONE of this and most of this is mandatory nowadays in Brawl/P:M modding. Speaking of Resources, what would help is if there were some tutorials listed for specific programs or just in general, like how to use 3DS MAX/Blender for importing models, how to change specific materials, how to insert codes, how to modify SFX files, etc.

One more thing though that should be added is the Custom Brawl Modding Discord. It's very well organized and there's a lot of stuff you can do over there. It has plenty of resources, lots of users that are active you can talk to about your mods (like feedback and helping and what not), etc. A link if anyone is interested: https://discord.gg/GbxJhbv

This sounds like a lot, but these are all that I'd think would help benefit the Vault a lot.

I hate to Necropost again, but this is becoming an issue. I get the Forums and the people on them aren't as active as they used to be, but could the Moderation and/or Admin team consider opening Moderation positions?

Because I've noticed we've been getting troubling amounts of spam bots as of late.

Back in April, I took a screenshot of the first page of the Introductions Board, and 65% of the posts are from bots. I'm not sure if things have changed since then.

And just today, I was met with this when checking on Updated Topics.

I'm aware we've always had to deal with bots, but I've noticed there being more lately. I feel this is due to a lack of active Moderator activity to keep these bots at bay.

If Moderator roles aren't open, then could you consider updating your anti-bot filters? Because I'd rather see these forums inactive/dead rather than become infested by bots.

Oi vei, way too much spammage just from when I woke up this morning, do you think you guys could implement KJP's idea for moderation at all? Cause although Brawl Vault is really active, the forums themselves are almost dead cause most people are on Discord, so if we moderate literally every new topic (With a notice somewhere on the main page that we do that so the actual users know), that would actually work

I hate to Necropost again, but this is becoming an issue. I get the Forums and the people on them aren't as active as they used to be, but could the Moderation and/or Admin team consider opening Moderation positions?

Because I've noticed we've been getting troubling amounts of spam bots as of late.

Back in April, I took a screenshot of the first page of the Introductions Board, and 65% of the posts are from bots. I'm not sure if things have changed since then.

And just today, I was met with this when checking on Updated Topics.

I'm aware we've always had to deal with bots, but I've noticed there being more lately. I feel this is due to a lack of active Moderator activity to keep these bots at bay.

If Moderator roles aren't open, then could you consider updating your anti-bot filters? Because I'd rather see these forums inactive/dead rather than become infested by bots.

In regards to the site's goal, I know a Sm4sh Vault was planned, but at this point, I feel forum CSS updates and functionality should be addressed. However, I know this is easier said than done because to my knowledge, Vyse is the only coder among the staff. Additionally, unless the forums receive more activity, the staff wouldn't see much reason to put in the work.

One way to encourage and improve activity would indeed be to include more than just Brawl modding. Instead of making a Sm4sh Vault, why not make KC-MM the general Smash modding hub (Vault updates can come at a later time)? It would include modding and discussion about all the games in the Smash series (64, Melee, Brawl, Wii U/3DS, and Ultimate). Even though SmashBoards has us beat in regards to discussion, I feel KC-MM has always been the stronger modding hub, and I feel an extension to that could potentially boost activity enough to motivate these well-needed updates.

Regardless, the final choice lies on what the Admins want to do with these forums.

I agree with KJP, Smashboards is mostly centered around tournaments, not really modding, and then GameBanana isn't nearly as big of a hub for Smash games, cause it has like a bajillion games on it, it kinda makes sense to transition the Vault and forums to be about all Smash games

For what it's worth, I feel like the exclusive focus on Brawl has limited the site's growth and relevance ever since the rise of Smash 4 / Ultimate modding. I don't know if having an all-encompassing "Smash Vault" would be enough to revive the forums, but it might be worth a shot.

while i agree, iirc this site is now a background project for the admins, and time would need to be dedicated to shifting around the forums for sections of each game, beit Brawl, SSB4, or Ultimate. plus, SSB4 would likely need to be split between 3DS and Wii U.